Rolf Wenkhaus was born on September 9, 1917 in Berlin, Germany. He was an actor, known for Emil und die Detektive (1931), S.A.-Mann Brand (1933) and Spoiling the Game (1932). He died on January 31, 1942 in Ireland.
Rolf Wenkhaus was among an entire crew of six killed when their plane, a Focke-Wulf Fw 200 "Condor," was shot down during World War II. The Condor was a four-engine bomber that specialized in attacking shipping. Wenkhuas's plane, with identification code F8 MH 0093, was shot down January 31, 1942, off the coast of Bloody Foreland, County Donegal, Ireland by the HMS Genista, a Flower-class Corvette utilized as a convoy escort. The body of the Condor's pilot, Werner Bornefeld, washed up at Bunbeg, Ireland two weeks later.
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In 1933 he appeared in one of the Third Reich's first propaganda films S.A.-Mann Brand as Erich Lohner, a juvenile member of the Hitler Youth who selflessly sacrifices himself at film's end to save a comrade. Like many Nazi propaganda films of the period, S.A.-Mann Brand was banned from viewing for many years following World War II.
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After the outbreak of World War II, Wenkhaus enlisted in the military and was killed in action in 1942.
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He made his film debut at age 14 in 1931 as a child actor in the role of Emil in the Gerhard Lamprecht-directed adventure film Emil and the Detectives (German: Emil und die Detektive) for Universum Film AG. The film was based on Erich Kästner's 1929 novel Emil and the Detectives.
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